Ad description

A website for an online homeworking system, stated “Shaun Smith Online Is Exposing An Amazing ... But True System, Showing You How To Make £10,000-£30,000+ A Month ... Let Me Show You How To Make Over £30K A Month FREE... I Will Show Step By Step How To Make £1000+ A Week ... Get Unlimited Amounts Of FREE Products And Services And Make Money”.

Issue

The complainant, who saw the ad on 12 July and did not believe the likely levels of earnings could be substantiated, challenged whether they were misleading.

Response

Shaun Smith said he supplied a free e-book about how he made £10,000 to £30,000 a month from many different income streams. He said this was not a homeworking scheme but a business opportunity. He attached a number of screenshots which he said indicated that, between 1 July and 31 July 2008, 1 January and 31 January 2010, 1 April and 30 April 2010, 1 January and 31 January 2011 and 1 August and 23 August 2011, transactions for the net value of between £10,279.28 and £32,070.49 were successfully deposited into a personal account with an accounting information system. He also submitted screenshots of a general report document which he said showed that between 1 August and 23 August 2011 a profit of £2,231.18 had been achieved, an account home page that showed that weekly sales on 24 August 2011 was $137.52, a page that stated “Total Estimated Earnings = $294.24”, a “Transfer Commissions” document that showed that, on 5 August 2011 $638 was earned and on 12 August $162 was earned, and an online e-commerce account which showed that, during August, various monies were transferred into a bank account. He said they showed the money he had earned from various income streams and therefore substantiated the quoted earnings.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA considered the ad implied that earnings of £10,000 to £30,000 a month were representative of the amounts that consumers could achieve each month. We noted that, although the “Transfer Commission” and “Estimated Earnings” screenshots quoted earnings, they did not provide evidence that transactions had been carried out or that similar earnings had been achieved by others enrolled in the scheme. We noted the screenshots of the accounting information system provided details about five monthly transactions that had been completed since 2008. However, we noted only two of these related to the last 12 months and showed that transactions relating to less than £12,000 and £8,000 had been successful. We noted some of the screenshots showed that monies had been deposited or withdrawn during August 2011 but did not consider that these provided adequate evidence to demonstrate that, on 12 July 2011, consumers could achieve £10,000 to £30,000 each month. Furthermore, we noted we had not received any evidence of how the money was obtained, or that the money had resulted from participation in the business opportunity offered by Shaun Smith. We considered that Shaun Smith had not shown that the earnings claims were representative of the likely returns a consumer could expect. We concluded that the ad was misleading.

The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  3.1 3.1 Marketing communications must not materially mislead or be likely to do so.  and  3.3 3.3 Marketing communications must not mislead the consumer by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner.
Material information is information that the consumer needs to make informed decisions in relation to a product. Whether the omission or presentation of material information is likely to mislead the consumer depends on the context, the medium and, if the medium of the marketing communication is constrained by time or space, the measures that the marketer takes to make that information available to the consumer by other means.
 (Misleading advertising),  3.7 3.7 Before distributing or submitting a marketing communication for publication, marketers must hold documentary evidence to prove claims that consumers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation. The ASA may regard claims as misleading in the absence of adequate substantiation.  (Substantiation),  3.9 3.9 Marketing communications must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify.  (Qualification),  3.11 3.11 Marketing communications must not mislead consumers by exaggerating the capability or performance of a product.  (Exaggeration) and  20.4 20.4 Marketing communications for homework schemes must contain no forecast of earnings if the scheme is new. Marketers may state the likely level of earnings only if it can be supported with evidence of the experience of existing homeworkers. Marketers must not exaggerate the support available to homeworkers.  (Homework schemes).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Shaun Smith not to make earnings claims in the future unless he held robust substantiation to support them.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

20.4     3.1     3.11     3.3     3.7     3.9    


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